The Nautilus
by Ryo314
Summary: Charlie knew things were going to get interesting the moment he saw a very nervous Liam Keller enter his office.
1. Chapter I

Title: The Nautilus

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: Breaking Point

Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs.

Summary: Charlie knew things were going to get interesting the moment he saw a very nervous Liam Keller enter his office.

Note: I just decided to go through and re-do this story because I have plans for Liam and Emily. I hope you enjoy and review. Chapter 1/4.

**The Nautilus**

Chapter I

"_If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up somewhere else." Alfred Adler_

Liam Keller sipped at his drink and then adjusted the tie he was wearing. He should have been excited, or at least more interested than he was acting. He was at a math conference with some of the greatest minds in the country with one of his professors, who doubled as his mentor, but his mind was far from the small talk of the professors, other graduate and Ph. D students, and mathematicians around him. Instead, his mind was on girl who'd left the conference about half an hour before.

Liam took another sip of his drink and sighed; there was a knot forming in his stomach, and he wanted nothing more than to go outside and make a phone call. However, he'd been told that he needed to act as normal as possible, and going outside to make a nervous phone call would not be acting normal.

"You really need to calm down, Liam," said a voice to his left. "If you get much more nervous, you're going to start spilling your drink all over yourself."

"I can't help it, Prof. Gordon; Emily left. She wasn't supposed to leave."

"Franklin went with her. Besides, it's hard to keep a mind such as Emily's entertained with the pompous prattle of mathematicians." Prof. Gordon gave a polite smile and wave to two men who walked past.

"I can't help but think that something is going to go wrong."

"If you keep thinking like that, something will go wrong." Prof. Gordon sighed. "I have someone I would like to introduce you to."

Liam sighed and nodded. He followed Prof. Gordon across the hall, waiting impatiently when Prof. Gordon got stopped by another colleague, until they apparently reached their destination.

"Dr. Eppes, this is the student I was telling you about. Liam Keller is one of my most promising students. He breezed through is Masters and is well on his way to his Ph. D. I'm hoping that he'll eventually choose to teach as well."

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Eppes," said Liam, extending his hand; Dr. Eppes shook it. Liam was amazed by how young he was. "I've always been interested with the math you've used to help solve crimes with the FBI."

"You've heard about that?"

"Chicago may be a ways away, but the math would is pretty small."

Charlie smiled and nodded his head. "You can say-"

Before Charlie could finish his sentence, an explosion rocked the hall they were in. Prof. Gordon and Dr. Eppes were both knocked off their feet, while Liam barely managed to retain his balance. Looking up, Liam spotted several men entering the hall who were definitely not part of the conference.

_"I have to call Emily!" _Liam's mind screamed at him. He pulled out his cellphone, ears still ringing, and dialed.

XVIIIIV

"Die you stupid Minotaur!" Emily shouted at the laptop screen. "Why won't you die?!"

Her cellphone, which was sitting next to her computer on the hotel table, began ringing, startling her from her gaming "zone." Emily snatched up the phone. "Yo-ha."

A panicked voice greeted her on the other end. "Emily, get out of the hotel!"

She furrowed her brows. "Liam? What's going on?"

"Get Franklin and get yourself out of there!" In the background, Emily could hear a lot of yelling.

"Liam, what is going on?!" She could feel a pit growing in her stomach.

Emily could hear Liam let out a huge sigh. "Omega."

Emily swallowed hard. "But-what-it-"

"Get Franklin and get out! Now!"

With shaking hands, Emily hung up her cellphone. She turned off the laptop in front of her without even exiting the game she'd been playing. Struggling to keep the panic from building inside of her, Emily went around the small hotel room, gathering up her things. She threw some clothes into her bag along with her wallet and iPod. She managed to shove her computer into the bag as well and then threw the bag across her shoulder. Grabbing her sneakers from where she'd kicked them off under the table, Emily pulled them on. She grabbed a hat, jacket, and cellphone and then reached for her Ripstick-a staple form of transportation at her school. Her brother told her she was ridiculous for going through all the effort of getting it on the plane, but now she was glad she had it. She then ran out the door.

Emily hurried down the hall to Franklin's room and was about to knock when several gunshots sounded from behind the door. With her heart beating a million miles an hour, Emily took off running down the hall; she suddenly felt like she had the weight of the world on a single shoulder.

XVIIIIV

Don hurried through the crowds, trying to find Charlie. When the FBI got the call about the explosion at CalSci, his thoughts had immediately gone to Charlie, especially since Charlie had told him a few days before that he was going to be attending a conference at the school that night. Judging from the way everyone was dressed up, it must have been a rather formal conference. Don finally spotted Charlie talking with a few other people, and letting out a sigh of relief, Don made his way over to his brother.

"Charlie, are you okay?" Don grabbed hold of his brother's shoulder and scanned him for injuries.

"Yeah, Don. I'm okay. My ears are ringing a little, but I'm fine. It doesn't seem as though anyone was hurt." Charlie scoffed. "Now, I'm really glad that Amita and Larry couldn't make it tonight."

"What happened?"

"I'm not really sure. I was talking to a student that a colleague of mine introduced me to, and all of a sudden, there was this huge explosion. My colleague and I were knocked down, but the student managed to stay on his feet. Then, all Hell broke loose."

"We've already got people investigating the explosion, and we're going to try and question the people closest to the explosion." Don thought for a moment. "Charlie, do you know who prepared the hall for tonight?"

Charlie though but then shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't. I could find out for you though."

"That won't be necessary."

Don and Charlie both looked over to see two men in suits waling towards them. Don immediately got a bad feeling from them.

"Can I help you?" asked Don curtly.

"Yes, you can. I'm Agent Bach, and this is my partner Agent Banks. We're from the NSA." Both men flashed their badges. "Are you the lead agent?"

"Yes. I'm Special Agent Don Eppes." He studied the two men carefully. "What can I do for you?"

Agent Bach gave Don a smug smile. "You can call off your investigation; we don't want to be stepping on each other toes."

Don bit back the urge to to make a smart response and put on his most passive face. "Excuse me?"

"We will be taking over this investigation."

"Why?"

"That information is classified."

Don glared at the two agents. "I'm sorry, but I am not calling off the investigation. Not only did this happen at a school in LA, but one of out consultants"-_ "And your's" - _"was put in danger. Unless you give me a reason, I'm not calling this off."

Both agents glared at him, but only Agent Bach spoke. "This is not wise, Agent Eppes." Agent Banks was giving him a hard glare; apparently, he was only there for intimidation. "I will only give you one chance to change your mind."

"That's not gonna happen."

Agent Bach glared at him and then shook his head. "You will be seeing us again soon, Agent Eppes." He and Agent Banks walked away.

"Something tells me that is not going to end well," said Charlie, from where he stood behind Don.

Don laughed slightly and shrugged his shoulders. "If need be, I think I could take Bach, but Agent Banks may be a little tougher." He shook his head, now ready to be a bit more serious. "Where are the two people you were talking to right before the explosion? The colleague and the student?"

Charlie shrugged. "I don't really know what happened to the student; he was gone before the colleague and I had even gotten back to our feet. My colleague left after saying he needed to make sure the rest of his group was okay. Apparently, he was here with a group from his school who had all been working on some project."

"The student just ran off after the explosion?" That seemed a little odd to Don.

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, but it definitely wasn't the strangest behavior I saw. Hell! I've never seen an explosion at a math conference!" With a heavy sigh, Charlie shook his head, while his left hand went to rub his temple. Don was finally seeing how shaken up his brother was; Charlie was trying hard not to show it.

"What do you think Dad is gonna say?"

Don was brought out of his thoughts. "Huh?"

"What do you think Dad is gonna say? He's bound to have seen this on the news by now." Charlie groaned. "I'm probably gonna spend all night convincing his I'm okay."

"Maybe he went to bed early," suggest Don with a shrug. "Like at seven."

Charlie shook his head, not impressed by his brother's ridiculous optimism. "That is statistically unlikely."

XVIIIIV

There was something wrong. Their "interrogation" of the NSA agent/code maker had not gone as planned. The man had adamantly refused to say anything, preferring death to being a traitor; they had kindly given the man his preference.

Now, back at "headquarters" they were investigating what exactly was wrong. Why would a single member of the group have gone back to the hotel by himself? That was just asking for trouble. After an in depth look at the group's travel plans, they had discovered that a total of six plane tickets had been purchased, not five, and that the student Liam Keller had a second person staying in his hotel room. The leader decided it was time for a chat with their source.

"Who is the sixth group member?" the leader demanded immediately after the source had answered their phone.

"Her name is Emily Keller; she is Liam's sister."

"But who is she?"

There was a loud sigh on the other end of the phone. "A change in the plan that was not intended." There was a brief pause, and it sounded as though a large group of people had just walked past where ever their source was. "You need her."

"Why? What is so important about her?"

"Without her, no one can read the code."

"What?" The man was furious. "You mean you don't have a hard copy of the code?"

"Franklin deemed it too dangerous to travel with a hard copy. We found...alternate means."

"Do you remember it?"

The source scoffed. "Do you understand how complex this information is?! You're lucky I remember how to decipher it because we weren't allowed to write that down either."

"So what do we need this Emily for?"

"The code is on her...literally." A voice in the background suddenly called their source's name. "I have to go." The source hung up the phone, leaving the leader very unhappy.

XVIIIIV

The warm wind blew Emily's short hair into her face, and she pushed it back behind her ears with shaky hands. She was getting as much money as she could from her savings and checking accounts at an ATM; after this, she couldn't use her card or else she would put herself at risk of being found.

Emily was not looking forward to spending the next several days on her own in LA. She would have done anything to be back in Chicago where at least she had a bed and an EL pass. At this exact moment in time, she was beginning to miss her cramped dorm room, the semi-edible cafeteria, and even the crazy people who took public transit. She would have given anything at that moment in time to see Dave, the guy who sold umbrellas on the red line whenever it rained; Hell, she would even buy an umbrella.

XVIIIIV

Liam was panicking; his little sister was somewhere in LA by herself. Hell! He didn't even like it when she took the EL around Chicago with her friends. Liam groaned. This was not good! He'd called Omega thinking that Franklin would keep his sister safe, but Franklin was dead. D-E-A-D...dead. Franklin was dead-shot in his own hotel room-and now Emily was on her own in LA.

The group had been understanding in his calling of Omega, even though it was the most extreme plan, but they had also assumed that Franklin would be with her. Now, however, the entire operation was in danger.

Liam threw his bag over his shoulder and made his way to the hotel room door. He grabbed the room key off the end table and slid the card into his pocket. Liam opened the door and was about to step out into the hallway when he saw three men in suits walking down the hall. Nearly tripping over his own feet at he jumped back into his room, Liam pushed the door nearly closed and listened intently to what was going on.

One of the three men knocked on the door of the room next to him, which the last two members of the group were staying, and then there was a pause. Liam let out a huge sigh of relief when he heard the door open and the men begin talking to whoever had answered the door; he wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to hold his breath.

"Hello. I am Agent Scott Bach for the NSA. This is Agent Robert Carthwell and Agent Peter Banks. We need you and your associates to come with us." There was another pause. "Is this all the people who were working on um...the project?"

"Well...um...Liam Keller is in the room next to our's. He-"

Liam didn't wait to hear the rest of what the person had to say. He closed the door as quietly as he could and then turned and looked desperately around the room. He had to think, and he had to think fast. Anyone would tell you that Liam was not good at thinking on his feet. Liam's eyes suddenly fell on the doors leading out to the balcony; he was only on the second floor. How bad could the drop actually be? Practically in a sprint, Liam ran to the doors and looked over the edge of the balcony. Okay, the drop could be pretty bad. Liam was about to go back into the hotel room when a heavy knocking startled him. He knew he would never be allowed to try and find Emily if the NSA had him...Why did the NSA want him?!

There was another heavy knock on the door, and Liam quickly made up his mind. Spotting some bushes close to the balcony, Liam made up his mind. First, he tossed a bag he'd packed in case of emergency and leaped toward the bushes himself. He landed hard, jarring his entire body, which startled a couple of women who were laying by the pool, and then quickly got to his feet.

After getting back his footing, Liam darted to the entrance to the pool area, wincing as the weight of his bag settled against his back.. He was never going to be able to find Emily on his own, at least not before the NSA could track him down. He was going to need help, and he was going to need it fast.

XVIIIIV

CalSci was still functioning despite the explosion from the night before, and after a long day of classes, Charlie was gathering his things to head home. He had to stop by Amita's office before he left to iron out their dinner plans for the next night. Charlie was about ready to grab his laptop bag and head out when there was a quiet knock on the door. With a sigh, Charlie set down the notebook he'd just grabbed.

"Come on in." There was a brief pause, but then the door to his office opened. Charlie recognized the young man from the conference the night before.

"Dr. Eppes?"

"Yes," said Charlie. He struggled to remember the young man's name. "You're...Liam Keller?"

The young man nodded. "Yeah."

"What can I do for you, Mr. Keller?"

"You can...you can just call me Liam."

"Okay. What can I do for you, Liam?"

The kid opened his mouth, but he looked as though he was struggling to come up with what to say. He finally seemed to decide after a moment passed. "I need your help."

"I'm sorry, but I'm in a bit of a hurry right now. Is there anyway we could discuss this tomorrow?"

"It might be too late by tomorrow."

Charlie stared at Liam, now very intrigued. "What is going on?"

"I think I might now something about the explosion that happened last night."

Charlie stared at him suspiciously. "Like what?"

"Like who they were after?"

Charlie creased his eyebrows in confusion. "Who were they after?"

Liam sighed. "My colleagues and I."

"What?! Why?"

Liam seemed to deflate. "It's a very long story."

Charlie looked at his watch; Amita was going to be really upset with him, but this was _very_ important. "I've got time."

Liam sighed. "It all started about three months ago. Prof. Gordon asked me along with a TA from one of the Ph. D. classes to help him with a project. Another professor at the school was also involved. We worked on the project for about three weeks before I made a major mistake."

"Which was?" asked Charlie when Liam didn't continue.

"I got my younger sister involved. She also goes to the Illinois Institute of Technology. She majors in math too, but all she wanted to do was make computer games." Liam rubbed his temples. "I was just trying to show her that there was more to math than just her games...stuff that could help people. My sister is amazing with patterns, and she helped with the project to condense some of the information. Had I known then what I know now, not only would I never have allowed Emily to give input, but I would never have brought her in on the project."

"What was the project for?"

"It was a program meant to condense large amounts of information into much smaller appearing files. You would run the information through the program, and gigabytes of information could be stored and sent as just a few megabytes. Once the information was received, it could be run through the program, and all of the information would still be there. Huge amounts of highly sensitive information could be discreetly sent through emails, and no one would be the wiser. We knew what we were making the program do, but we never actually knew what were doing it for."

Liam sighed and ran a hand nervously through his hair. "One day, Prof. Gordon came in with a man named Lucas Franklin, and Prof. Gordon nearly had a meltdown when he saw my sister had been helping with the project. You see, what we were never told was that the project we were developing was for the NSA." Liam sighed. "Now my sister was completely involved with the rest of us, and we were never even told!" Liam sighed. "I don't even know if that's legal or not."

Liam took a deep breath before continuing. "Once the project was complete, there came the task of delivering it. Franklin was not only a mathematician, but he was also an NSA agent. We had to go to LA, and we couldn't carry a hard copy of the project; it was too risky. It took us forever, but someone finally came up with a different method."

Liam didn't continue, and Charlie finally had to prompt him. "What was it?"

"A tattoo...on the least suspicious group member. My sister Emily. On her back is a tattoo with all the information buried in it. Only the members of the group know how to decode the tattoo."

Charlie found all this information very intriguing, but he wasn't sure why Liam had come to him. It was obvious there was very little he would be able to do with or without the code. "What do you need my help for?"

"Last night, after the explosion, I called one of our emergency plans in case something went wrong. Emily was supposed to go with Franklin, and they were supposed to remain in hiding for five days with absolutely no contact with any other members of the group."

"So what is the problem?"

"Franklin was killed last night; Emily left without him."

Charlie was shocked, but he managed to keep the conversation going. "I hate to sound pessimistic, but how do you know she got away?"

"Because no one outside our group knew about Emily; she took her things and escaped."

Charlie shook his head. "What do you need my help with?"

"I have to find Emily. I have to find her before someone else does. I want my little sister back safe and sound. These people who are after this code, they're dangerous. And the bad thing is, I don't even know who they are."

"But how can _I_ help you?"

"I know you work with the FBI, and I also know that you have worked with the NSA." Charlie's eyes went wide. "I had temporary clearance with the NSA; I used it to my advantage."

Charlie shook his head and sat down in his desk chair. "I just...I just don't know how I can help you."

"Take me to the FBI; you have pull with them." Liam was almost begging. "If you have a brother or sister, you must know how I feel right now."

Liam's words hit home, and Charlie nodded. "Okay. My brother works at the FBI; I'm sure together we'll be able to figure out something."

Liam breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you, Dr. Eppes. Thank you so much."

"Don't thank me yet." Charlie grabbed his laptop bag and notebook and gestured for Liam to follow him as he walked out of his office. Once he got Liam to the FBI offices, he, Liam and Don could probably figure out what was the best plan of action.

"Did the NSA ever give you any more information on what the program was for?" asked Charlie as they headed to his car.

Liam shook his head as he adjusted the strap of his bag nervously. "No. We only knew that large amounts of information could be easily disguised and sent; that seems handy for a lot of reasons. But other than that, we were kept in the dark a lot. Prof. Gordon often ran his projects that way; he was afraid of someone else taking credit after a friend of his stole one of his thesises."

"I'm not sure how much help I can give you if I don't even know what the project you were working was about," said Charlie, unlocking the car doors so he and Liam could get in.

"You don't need to know what it was about to find Emily. She was just supposed to go somewhere with Franklin. Now she is trying to stay off the map on her own, and I need someone's help to find her. Someone who is good at predicting people's patterns." Charlie stared at Liam. "I know a lot about you. You're my sister's idol. Last Thanksgiving all I got to hear about was your work. Granted it was interesting but not for three hours. I swear IIT created a math monster when they admitted her."

Charlie nodded as he started his car and pulled out of the parking lot. "You and your sister both study math?"

"It's about the only thing we have in common," Liam muttered in reply.

Charlie decided it would be best if he didn't respond to that.

They had been driving for several minutes when Charlie noticed that a dark green SUV in his rear view mirror was getting closer very quickly. Charlie slowed to allow the person to pass, not really feeling like playing the speed game, but the SUV slowed down too. He tried to shrug it off, but Charlie couldn't ignore the uneasy feeling in his stomach. Deciding to test his feelings, Charlie sped up. As if Charlie's accelerator controlled the other vehicle as well, the SUV sped up too. When they reached an intersection, Charlie made an unnecessary left without signaling; the SUV nearly spun out as it turned to follow.

"Um...Liam?"

The younger man looked at him. "Yeah?"

"I don't want to worry you, but we might have someone following us."

"What!?" The younger man turned quickly and spotted the SUV.

The sheer panic in Liam's voice reminded Charlie of when someone had tried to run him off the road not too long ago because of a television interview.

"Calm down. We just need to stay on the main roads until we get to the FBI. Whoever is back there wouldn't try anything in broad daylight, especially with other people-"

Before Charlie could even finish his sentence, the SUV behind him had rammed the back of his car. Liam struggled to brace himself using the door and the dashboard while Charlie tried to regain control of the car.

"What the Hell?!" shouted Liam, his voice seeming to raise a few octaves. Charlie managed to gain control of his car again as several cars around them began honking loudly.

Before Charlie could say anything to the younger man, the SUV had rammed the back of the car again. This time, Charlie couldn't control his car, and it went over a curb hard. Bringing the car to an abrupt stop by slamming on the brakes, Charlie struggled to control his breathing as the SUV braked behind them. However, several other cars were pulling out to see what was going on, and the SUV sped off to avoid the attention. As people were coming over to see if they were okay, Charlie looked over at Liam and saw that the young man's face was now several shades paler.

"I told you they were dangerous," said Liam, running the back of his hand across his forehead to get rid of the cold sweat.

"Yeah," said Charlie. "I believe you."

XVIIIIV

Don was looking over a case report when a shadow fell over his desk. He looked up to Colby holding a cup of coffee.

"What are you working on?" asked Colby, before taking a drink of his coffee.

"I'm just looking over the information we gathered from CalSci last night."

"I still can't believe you told off two NSA agents."

Don stared at him. "You weren't there last night. How did you know about that?"

Colby laughed. "The entire office knows about it. You told off an NSA agent, and no one likes them." Colby was about to walk away when he suddenly smacked his forehead with his palm. "I nearly forgot. David said that Charlie is looking for you along with some young guy."

"Why didn't he check my desk?" Colby shrugged. "Where is he?"

Colby pointed in Charlie's general direction, and Don stood from his desk to go find Charlie. He found the professor outside the war room with, as Colby said, a young man in tow.

"Hey, Charlie, what's going on?"

Charlie turned around and hurried over to his brother. "Don, I...um...this is Liam Keller. Liam, this is my brother Don Eppes; he's an agent." Don reached out to shake Liam's hand, and the younger man shook it nervously. "He...he has some in..information about the bomb last night."

Don couldn't help but notice how nervous his brother sounded. "Charlie, are you okay?"

"Um..." Charlie pushed open the door of the war room. "Can we talk in here?"

Don nodded and followed his brother and Liam into the room. "Isn't it a little late to be stopping by here?"

"We would have been here sooner if we hadn't been run off the road," muttered Liam as he ran a shaking hand over his face.

Don's eyes went wide. "What?!"

"We're okay. I can't say the same for my car, but I was still able to drive it here." Don could tell that even though his brother was making jokes the entire thing had him freaked out; his hands were trembling slightly. Charlie swallowed hard. "I think it would be best to start from the beginning. Liam, can you tell my brother what you told me?"

Liam nodded and took a deep breath. It took nearly ten minutes, but Liam explained the entire situation to Don even adding some parts that he had neglected to tell Charlie. When he finished, Liam let out a large sigh and shook his head.

"I didn't know when I took my sister to work on the project that all of this was going to happen," said Liam as he collapsed into a chair.

"Why didn't you refuse to let your sister get the damn tattoo if you were so worried about her?" demanded Don; it was obvious that he was angry. The thought of another sibling purposely putting another sibling in danger made him fume; perhaps it it a little too close to how he felt about letting Charlie work with the FBI.

"I was in a catch-22. My sister was already involved." Tears started to form in Liam's eyes. "If I said no, not only would it anger the man who's my mentor, but I make my sister think I didn't think she can do it. If I said yes, I willingly putting my sister's life in danger." Liam shrugged. "I just didn't say anything, and I think Emily felt forced to agree."

Don suddenly felt bad for the young man, and he couldn't help but wonder if Charlie ever felt forced into helping him at the FBI.

"Why don't you just go to the NSA?"

"Because the NSA won't find her; the NSA will find the code. They can read her tattoo whether she is dead or alive. I want someone to find Emily."

Don nodded feeling very bad for the young man. While his view of the NSA may not have been entirely correct, Don couldn't help but agree with Liam's thought that the NSA were going to be a little more concerned with getting the information than actually finding the young girl.

"Okay," said Don. "We'll try and find your sister." He began to pace the war room. "You said your sister isn't supposed to contact you for five days?"

"Yeah," replied Liam, nodding.

"Do you have any idea where she would have gone?"

"No. Emily's never even been here. All she knows is Chicago and our hometown."

Don nodded and then something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. The elevator had opened revealing the two NSA agents from the night before.

"Damn it!" Don nearly shouted.

Both Charlie and Liam looked over and spotted the two men. "What are they doing here?" said Charlie, instantly recognizing the men.

"Oh God!" Liam shook his head several times. "I can't go with them!"

"How do you know they're after you?" asked Don.

"Because they came to the hotel my colleagues and I were staying at. When they knocked on my door, I kind of jumped off a balcony and ran, and because of that."

Liam pointed, and Charlie and Don looked up to see the two agents heading toward the war room.

"I can't go with them!" Liam shouted nearly panicked. "There is no way that I will be able to find Emily if I am with them. I have to stay here. What can I do?"

Don felt for the young man, but unlike the night before, he didn't really have any way to keep Liam Keller from being taken in by the NSA; the guy was wrapped up in the middle of a project for them.

"Look," said Don, trying to sound calm. "I'm not sure there is anything that can keep you here short of assaulting of an agent." It seemed as thought Don hadn't even gotten to the end of the sentence before a fist connect with his jaw, and he stumbled back a few feet.

"Don, are you okay?" shouted Charlie as he hurried over to his brother. Don was rubbing his jaw, but other than that he seemed okay. Despite his small size and stature, Liam packed a hell of a punch.

"Does that count?" asked Liam. He seemed shaky about what he had just done but determined that he was not going with the NSA.

The two NSA agents made their way to the war room and opened the door. "Agent Eppes," said Agent Bach, sounding even more smug than the night before, "are you okay?" Without even waiting for an answer, Agent Bach turned toward Liam. "Mr. Keller, we missed you at your hotel. If you would be kind enough to come with us."

Liam looked between the two agents and Don and Charlie; there was a look of sheer panic on his face, and his breathing was getting heavy.

Don, who was still rubbing his jaw, cleared his throat. "He can't. Liam Keller is under arrest...for assaulting an FBI agent."

While the two NSA agents looked as though their heads were going to explode in anger, Liam actually smiled. It was the only time in Don's entire career that someone had smiled after hearing him say they were under arrest.

"You haven't seen the last of me, Mr. Keller," said Agent Back; he then turned toward Don. "And neither have you, Agent Eppes." It was obvious by the two agents' exit that they didn't feel like fighting for Liam at that moment in time.

All three men breathed a huge sigh of relief when the two men left.

"Agent Eppes, I am really sorry, but I couldn't go with them." Liam looked as though he was sincere, and Don had a hard time thinking that he would have done something different had Charlie been in danger. While it certainly hadn't been the hardest punch Don had ever received, Liam had a pretty good right hook for such a small, unassuming guy.

"It's okay. Don't do it again, but I'll let it slide this time. You're just lucky none of the FBI agents saw or else things would have been a lot more interesting." Don turned toward Charlie who still seemed a little shocked by Liam's action. "Hey, Charlie, I forgot to ask earlier. What color was the SUV that ran you off the road?"

Charlie closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Dark green." Liam nodded in confirmation.

"You didn't happen to get the license plate did you?"

Charlie shook his head. "I was preoccupied at the time."

Don turned toward Liam, and the younger man turned very red. "I was...I was kind of screaming."

Don nodded not really wanting to embarrass the man by questioning him any further. "Charlie, do you have room at your place?"

Charlie nodded, understanding what his brother was getting at. "I'll have to tell Dad we're having a guest."

Liam looked at Don and Charlie. "I'm going to be stay at Dr. Eppes' house?"

Don crossed his arms and gave the man a smirk. "It's either that, or I can lock you up for assaulting me."

Liam turned pale and then looked toward Charlie. "Thank you very much for the invite."

TBC


	2. Chapter II

Title: The Nautilus

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: Breaking Point

Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs.

Summary: Charlie knew things were going to get interesting the moment he saw a very nervous Liam Keller enter his office.

Note: Well, here is chapter two, and I hope you all are enjoying my story. Please read and review.

**The Nautilus**

Chapter II

"_Imagination and resourcefulness are extremely useful tools; use them."_

"I don't think you're telling us everything," said the man, glaring at the person sitting across from him. "I told you I needed to know everything if this was going to go smoothly." He paused for a moment and then leaned forward to appear more threatening. "You want your money don't you?"

"Of course I want my money. I'm risking my freedom for it, aren't I?" The person glared back but swallowed hard, revealing his nerves.

"What are we missing?" demanded the man angrily. "You never even told us about this Emily Keller? What is she?"

"I never could get a chance. That NSA bastard Franklin was keeping a close eye on all our emails and calls." The person sighed. "Emily has the code."

"I thought you said there were no hard copies of the code?"

"There aren't...perse." The person ran a tired hand down his face. "When we learned that we wouldn't be able to travel with a hard copy of the code and that emails were too risky, we had to come up with alternative means to travel with it. That is where Emily Keller comes in."

"Who is she?"

"She is the younger sister of one of the mathematicians who worked on the project. She inadvertently became involved when she thought of a better pattern in the program. From that point on, she was a member whether she liked it or not."

"Why was she trusted with the code if she did so little?"

"The code is on her shoulder...in a tattoo. We designed a tattoo which had all the elements of the project hidden in it."

"So we need this Emily girl?"

"And me. While the code is on her, you have to have one of the other project members decipher the tattoo; that was our fail safe, many people who could read it, but only one copy."

The man nodded, finally understanding all the cryptic messages his informant had been giving him. "Where is she?"

The person turned pale, and it was obvious that they didn't really want to answer the most recent question. "Well...that's a bit complicated."

The man was angry. "Uncomplicate it."

"I don't know where she is."

"Why not?"

"Because her moron of a brother called one of our emergency plans after the explosion last night. Franklin developed them. It's your fault."

The man glared at him obviously not appreciating being told it was his fault. "What was the plan?"

"Emily was supposed to go with Franklin and remain out of contact with the rest of the group for five days." They paused for a moment. "Why did you plant that bomb?"

"For exactly what happened afterwards, your group broke up. Do you think this entire plan would have gone off if all the members of your team were all together?"

The person shook their head. "That was a stupid thing to do."

The man ignored him. "Franklin is dead."

The person nodded. "So that means that Emily is somewhere in LA on her own. Surely you and your associates can find a lone twenty year old girl who has no experience in this city."

The man glared. "I suggest you worry about your own business and not mine." He paused and leaned back in his chair. "Go back to your hotel, make up some bullshit explanation for why you were gone. Keep in contact with us though. The moment you hear anything about this Emily, call us."

"Okay." The person rose to leave, but the man's stern voice stopped him.

"It would not be wise to try and turn against us...especially this late in the game."

The person smiled. "Duly noted." They gave a nod and then left the 'meeting.'

XVIIIIV

While at first Alan hadn't been too happy with boarding the young man who'd apparently punched his eldest son, after hearing what was going on, he began to sympathize with the young man. It certainly couldn't be easy to have lost your sister on top of everything else that had happened to him and his colleagues. At the moment, the four men were sitting in the living room, and three of them were trying hard to figure out where to start the entire investigation.

"I've already tried calling her," said Liam with a sigh. He was leaning forward on the couch with his head in his hands. "I knew she wouldn't answer; she specifically was told not to, but I couldn't...I couldn't help but hope."

Don could certainly understand the younger man's frustration, but at the same time, he had some bad news he had to tell him. "Liam, the FBI can't actually search for Emily."

Charlie, Alan, and Liam all stared at Don. "But...but you said you would help? I have to find her!" Liam seemed to start shaking. "In five days, I'm afraid it will be too late."

"I know, but the FBI is already investigating the bomb at CalSci."

"I told you!" Liam shouted. "They're connected."

Don winced at the shout but continued talking in a much calmer manner than Liam was displaying. "I know that, and you know that, but at the moment, the NSA doesn't?" Don thought for a moment. "Do they?"

Liam shook his head. "Franklin was the only person in the NSA who knew about the tattoo."

"Look, the NSA is watching the FBI closely right now. The second we start looking for Emily, they're going to start wondering why."

"Then how am I supposed to find her."

"We're going to work on it unofficially. We're going to do all the work, but none of the documentation."

"Can't you lose your job?" asked Liam. While he sounded sincere in his worry over Don's job, the agent could also hear a bit of hope in the young man's voice.

"Yeah?" echoed Charlie and Alan.

"Only if someone outside my team finds out."

"I really-" Before Liam could finish his sentence, Don's phone had rang. The agent got up and left the room to answer it, leaving the other three men in the living room.

"Do you have any idea where your sister might have gone?" asked Alan, joining in for the first time on the discussion of the missing girl.

"Neither one of us have ever been here," replied Liam with a shrug. "I don't know where she would have gone."

"Well, Chicago and LA are both big cities," said Alan with a nod of his head. "Where would Emily have gone if she was back in Chicago?" Charlie looked over at his father. "What? I've raised two kids; they're most likely going to go to places that are similar to what they know." Charlie continued to stare at his father, and Alan felt as though it would be best to explain. "Don 'ran away' once when your mother was pregnant with you. Your mother and I searched the whole neighborhood for hours; we even had the neighbors helping. Know where we found him?"

"Where?" asked Charlie.

"He'd taken his backpack all the way to the park and was watching a little league baseball game."

Liam closed his eyes and thought. "She loves tech stuff, computer games, computers in general, but I'm not sure she would go to a Best Buy or anything."

"What else?" asked Charlie.

Liam looked as though he was struggling to remember his sister's likes, and based off their conversation from earlier, Charlie wasn't all that surprised; it didn't seem as thought Emily and Liam were entirely too close.

Practically leaping from his chair, Liam started talking. "Bookstores! It seems as though where ever we go, Emily wants to go to a bookstore. Comics, novels, anything." Liam smacked his forehead. "She took her computer. Bookstores that have wifi."

"Do you really think your sister is going to be concerned with her computer when her life is in danger?" asked Charlie.

Liam shook his head. "You're never met Emily."

"Did she have any money on her?" asked Alan.

"Not much," replied Liam. "But she had her debit card. She wouldn't continue to use it, but..."

"She might have gotten money from an ATM with it," Charlie said, finishing Liam's sentence. Charlie stood up from the couch and started to pace the living room. As he did, Don returned to the living room.

"That was David," said Don as he put his cellphone back in its holder. "We've got some new information on the bomb at CalSci. I've got to go, but I'll be back later."

Alan and Liam both acknowledge him, but Charlie was too deep in thought to respond. The two other men watched Charlie for several minutes before he said anything.

"Your sister took her computer?"

Liam nodded. "Yeah."

"She uses wifi?"

"Yes."

"Did she use it at the hotel?"

"Every second she could. We weren't paying for it, so she used it all the time."

"Good," said Charlie. "Based off her computer use at the hotel, we track her use through LA. We'll start by seeing if she used her card and start modeling her movement from there. With any luck, we might be able to figure where she is going to go."

Liam smiled and nodded in understanding. "Perfect. I know she will be using that computer."

For Charlie, it was nice to explain one of his methods to someone and have them understand. "Good. We can get Don to get the records from the hotel, and then we can start tracking your sister's computer use." Charlie smiled. "I've got some friends who can help."

XVIIIIV

Emily had never been so scared in her entire life, not even when she and her friends had gotten into a car wreck before their senior year of high school. She was sitting in the middle of a hotel bed, trying her best to figure out what she was going to do. She'd looked pretty strange paying for a room and having nearly two hundred dollars fall out of her wallet in twenties. She was afraid at first that the fake ID she used to get into bars in Chicago wasn't going to cut it for renting a hotel room, but the clerk finally allowed her to rent the room. To make matters worse, Emily couldn't even call the one person in the world whom she thought would be able to help.

Emily got up off the bed and walked over to the window. She stared out at the city two stories below and let out a sad sigh. This was not exactly the way she had expected this trip to go, although it is kind of hard to predict the out come of a trip involving the NSA...and codes...and secret projects...Why couldn't her brother just have left her to her world of computers?

Shaking her head, Emily made her way back over to her bed. She toed off her shoes and grabbed the remote off the table. She knew any efforts to get sleep would be pretty futile if her sleepless night from the yesterday told her anything.

XVIIIIV

Despite the case he had hand, Charlie still had classes to teach, but Liam's, and subsequently Emily's, predicament was still weighing heavily on his mind. That morning, Liam had returned to the FBI offices with Don to make it appear as though he was in custody; they couldn't afford any reason for the NSA to get their hands on Liam. While there, in addition to following the lead on the bombing they had gotten the night before, Don was going to get a hold of Emily's wifi usage from the hotel.

There was only one more major obstacle that Charlie was going to have to face that day: Amita. While any other day Charlie would be the happiest man alive by seeing her, after blowing her off the night before, his enthusiasm was a little low.

He was wondering if it would be best to go and talk to her directly or wait a little while; however, he wasn't given a choice in the matter. Not a minute after he had reached his office, Amita had knocked on the door and entered.

"Charlie, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say yesterday that you would stop by my office before you left to iron dinner plans for tonight?"

Charlie could feel his face turning red. "Yes."

"You know, it wasn't even the fact that you didn't show up, and I waited an extra half hour before I left. Not to bring up the past, but this is not the first time you have forgotten to stop by when you said you would. However, all those other times I could either call you or you would call me. You didn't call, so I tried to call. You never answered." She gave Charlie a smile that dared him to try and talk his way out this. "Care to explain to me why I got to sit up part of the night and worry? No one even answered the phone at your house." Charlie distinctly remembered the phone ringing, but Liam and him had been working, and his father had already gone to bed.

_"This should be interesting,"_ Charlie thought to himself as he pulled a notebook out from under a stack of papers. "Well, there is a very good reason for all of that."

Amita crossed her arms and waited for Charlie to continue. When he didn't respond, Amita raised her eyebrow. "And what is it?"

Charlie took a deep breath. The story had been getting longer and longer since his first conversation with Liam the afternoon before. He was trying to think of the best and fastest way to explain that would give them both time to get to their morning classes.

"It has to do with the explosion that happened during the conference."

"Are you helping the FBI?"

"No." Charlie thought for a minute. "Not exactly. Yesterday, this student I met at the conference stopped by my office right when I was getting ready to leave. He said that he needed my help to find his sister." Amita's arms uncrossed; apparently she was intrigued, and Charlie continued. "To make what has become a very long and complicated story short, he and his sister were both involved in a project for the NSA. Things went wrong, an NSA agent was killed, and now a twenty year old is running around LA with a dangerous code on her shoulder all by herself."

Amita's jaw dropped. "Um...well...you know, that's something...that's something you just can't make up, especially when stranger things have happened." Amita took a seat in one of the chairs around the office. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, that's what Liam, that is the brother's name, and I spent most of last night coming up with." Amita gave him a strange look. "He's staying with me because he kind of has to stay in FBI custody."

"Why?"

"The NSA tried to take him, but he refused to go with him. He's scared he won't be able to find his sister if he goes with him." Charlie ran a hand over his face. "He punched Don, so he could be held on assault."

Amita's eyes went wide. "Is Don alright?"

Charlie waved off her concern. "Yeah. He's fine."

"What did you guys come up with?"

"Well, it's something that I could use your's and Larry's help on. You see, while Emily, that's the sister, was at their hotel, Liam said she was always on the computer. The good news is, she took her computer with her when she ran. Through her computer use, we're going to try track her and figure out where she is going to go."

"How? You know you can't predict movement like that."

"Based on what Liam says are his sister's habits. Dad was talking with us and said that a kid will go to places they are most familiar with; Liam says that she loves bookstores, and the good thing is: most bookstores have wifi." Amita nodded in understanding. "Don is going to get the records from the hotel, so we can track Emily's computer..."

"We could narrow it down to bookstores in LA with wifi," Amita continued. "If we can model a good pattern for her, we could narrow it down to three or four spots. It wouldn't be that hard to find her if everything goes right."

"There is only one problem."

"What?"

"The FBI can't officially work on finding Emily."

Amita was shocked. "Why not?"

"Because the NSA are watching them closely since the explosion and Liam are both involved. The second the FBI officially starts looking for Emily, the NSA are going to be wondering why which would make things very difficult."

"You have to do this on your own?"

"In a sense. The FBI computers and resources are still available, but no agents other than Don's team."

Amita shook her head. "That's not going to make things easy."

Charlie shrugged his shoulders. "Could be worse."

"How?"

Charlie thought for a moment. "I'm not sure at the moment, but I'm sure it could be."

Looking at his watch, Charlie gathered a few more things from his desk and a book off the shelf. "We've got to cut this short, I've got class."

Amita looked at her own watch. "Dang it! So do I."

"I'll stop by your office before lunch."

Amita gave him a smile. "Are you going to remember this time?"

Charlie rolled his eyes as they both left the office.

XVIIIIV

"You know," said David as he and Colby approached small, one-story house in a poorer neighborhood of LA, "if I remember this correctly, I believe this is going to be the third time we've tried to get this guy for making bombs."

"Third time?" said Colby.

"He's very good," replied David. "This is the first time we've ever had any direct evidence to him."

Colby nodded. "I still can't believe this whole NSA, secret code in a tattoo, missing girl thing."

"Seems like it came from some mystery novel or movie?"

"I still can't believe the guy who punched Don rode with him back to the FBI offices."

"That too."

The two agents walked up to the front door and knocked. They continued talking while waiting for someone to answer.

"Think it has something to do with the fact the guy is looking for his sister?" asked Colby.

David shrugged. "A coupla of years ago, I would have said no, but seeing how close Charlie and Don have gotten, yeah. It probably has something to do with it."

Colby nodded and turned back to the door. "Where is this guy? His car is here." He went to knock again, but David stopped him.

"Hear that?"

Colby listened carefully and heard the faint sounds of a radio coming from the back of the house. The two agents left the front of the house and walked up the driveway to the back. Lounging in a lawn chair next to a radio with a beer in his hand was there suspect.

"Can I help you?" asked the man, lifting his sunglasses and studying David and Colby carefully.

David and Colby both flashed their badges at the man.

"Drew Sherwood?" asked David.

"That would be me."

"We're going to need you to come with us."

Sherwood let out an exasperated sigh at David's request. "Can I finish my beer first?"

XVIIIIV

It seemed to Liam that he had been pacing one of the interview rooms all day; there weren't many other places that he could spend the entire day, and after Don Eppes's team had learned that he'd punched their team leader across the face the day before, they weren't exactly forth coming with too many other places. Even after Don had explained the entire situation to them, the team had continued to give him weird looks.

Just a little while earlier, Don had com in with a small stack of papers which not only contained his sister's computer use but also the last use of her debit card. He'd explained that he and his team were going to investigate a lead they'd gotten on the explosion at CalSci, but Dr. Eppes was supposed to come by after his classes were finished for the day with "help." Liam couldn't help but wonder who or what the "help" was going to be.

Liam let out a long sigh and stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in and began pacing the interview room. Even with his laptop set up and the beginning of a modeling program started, Liam couldn't keep his mind focused on anything. Every time he tried to work on the model, his mind drifted to his sister; she was somewhere on her own in LA, and he had no idea where.

_"God! What are Mom and Dad going to say?! If Emily gets hurt or worse...Mom and Dad will kill me, not to mention Brian. He's more protective of her than anyone. That poor guy who made fun of her when she was in high school." _Liam groaned and put his head on the table. _"I can't think like this. I'm going to find her! I am!"_

Liam's head had only been at the table for a moment or two before he heard the sound of the door to the room opening. Dr. Eppes walked in followed by a pretty Indian woman, and an older man with curly hair. Unfortunately, Liam didn't really recognize either one of them.

"Hey, Liam," said Charlie, setting down a laptop and a couple of notebooks. "How have things been today?"

Liam let out a sigh and adjusted himself in his chair; he felt his back crack, and he involuntarily winced. "Um...well...they haven't exactly been exciting. You're brother brought me my sister's computer use and her last debit card use. I started work on a modeling program similar to one I did as a project, but there is only so much I can do with this computer, and my temporary NSA clearance doesn't have much pull around here. Plus, I don't think your brother's team cares too much for me."

"Why?" asked the man with curly hair.

Liam looked down at his hands. "Probably because I punched Dr. Eppes's brother in the face."

The man's eyes went wide, and he turned toward Charlie. "I'll explain later," said Charlie. He looked back to Liam. "Let me introduce to Dr. Amita Ramanujan and Dr. Larry Fleinhardt."

Liam stood from the table and extended his hand to both Larry and Amita. "Liam Keller."

"Larry and Amita are going to help with the modeling program." Charlie looked down at Liam's computer. "Do you mind if I take a look at what you've got so far?"

Liam shook his head. "Not at all, Dr. Eppes."

Charlie winced internally when he heard Liam call him Dr. Eppes again; he'd been dealing with it mainly because Liam kind of reminded him of one of his students, but it was beginning to get a little odd considering he'd been around the young man so much. "You can call me, Charlie."

Liam looked at him and nodded and then Charlie went back to the computer. After a few minutes of looking at the modeling, Charlie turned back to Liam. "This is..." Charlie shook his head. "This is amazing. How did you develop this?"

"It was the midterm project for one of my master's classes," replied Liam.

"What was it used for?"

Liam turned bright red. "Believe it or not, we used it to model the behavior of the squirrels around the campus. We...um...we actually were able to track them back to like Squirrel City." Liam looked around at the three people now staring at him. "Um...it's a long story."

Charlie shrugged and then turned back to the computer. "Well, if you can explain the coding for this to me, I think we'll be able to work with this."

Liam smiled and nodded. "Of course, Dr.-Charlie."

"Great," Charlie turned toward Amita. "You've really got to take a look at this."

Amita walked over to take a look at the program while Larry and Liam stood off to the side, waiting.

XVIIIIV

Don wanted desperately to punch the man sitting across from him; that thought, however, only served to make the bruise on his jaw very sore. The man's name was Drew Sherwood, and he was known for making explosives for anyone who could pay him what he asked. The bomb from CalSci had his fingerprints all over it, both figuratively and literally. Sherwood didn't seem too intimidated, and that was one of the reasons Don wanted to hit him so badly. Luckily, Colby was doing most of the questioning, so Don didn't have access to Sherwood's jaw.

"Look, we have for two previous arrests for the exact same charges," said Colby, putting two folders in front of Sherwood.

"And yet I didn't get convicted," retorted Sherwood still as smug as he had been the last time they'd brought him in. "If all you have me on is speculation and previous charges, then you can't hold me for long."

Don clenched his fists, and he could see Colby's jaw tighten. This had been going on for much too long. "Look, Sherwood, I wouldn't pay too much attention to what your delinquent friends say that they learned from their moron lawyers."

Sherwood rolled his eyes. "I'm really getting sick of this agents; I do have other things I could be doing today."

Colby shook his head and turned toward Don; the lead agent nodded just enough for the other agent to notice. With a sigh, Colby pulled put a sheet of paper from one of the folders; it was a photo copy of Sherwood's fingerprints taken the last time he'd been arrested.

"You know," said Colby, "all that talk we've been going through was mainly just to see how cooperative you were going to be. Not that cooperative. The fact of the matter is we have the proof we need to connect you to the bomb at CalSci." Colby smiled smugly. "We know you have always been very careful about your work, and so far, we've never gotten any fingerprints on any of the explosives that you supposedly made. This time, however, you slipped."

Sherwood's eyes went wide. "Wh-what?"

Colby leaned forward on the table and said very directly, "You slipped up." He leaned back, and he and Don watched Drew Sherwood squirm in the chair across from him. "Care to tell us who had you make that bomb?"

Sherwood looked in between Don and Colby for several times; it was obvious he was at a loss for words. Several minutes passed before the man spoke, and it was not what either agent wanted to hear. "I want a lawyer."

Don and Colby both sighed in frustration, and Don quickly stood from his chair; his already bad mood had just gotten worse. As he was going for the door, Don heard Colby begin talking to Sherwood again.

"We'll get you your lawyer."

Don let the door closed and ran a hand through his hair. This case would have been bad enough when it had just been a bomb at CalSci, but no. The case had become more and more complicated since his first conversation with Agent Bach and Agent Banks; it was like a giant snowball rolling down a hill getting bigger and bigger. Their had been an explosion, a guy's sister-whose life is in danger-was somewhere in LA, and to top it off, the NSA was watching them like hawks. It was a snowball that they just couldn't control.

_"Man, I hope Charlie and those guys are having better luck than I am," _thought Don as he headed to the room where Charlie and everyone had set up camp. He was a little surprised when he walked into the room. When Don had spoken to them all earlier, the computers had been spread around the table along with the papers he'd brought in on Emily's computer and debit card use. Now, the computes we still set up along with the papers, but the screen in the room now contained a map of LA with several spots marked on it. Liam and Amita were both working on laptops while Larry and Charlie were studying the map and talking intently.

"Even if we can create a model for her movement around the city, how are you going to predict her next move, Charles?" asked Larry, pointing to a few of the spots labeled on the map.

"We may not be able to come up with one precise location, but general areas based on where she's been and where Liam said she may go shouldn't be too hard to formulate."

"She likes bookstores," threw in Liam who'd obviously been listening.

"How are things going on this?" asked Don, walking over to the map.

"Pretty good," replied Charlie. "We used a modeling program that Liam developed for school, and Amita was able to configure it to work especially for the program."

"Right now, we're tracking Emily Keller's computer across LA," added Larry. "We've been able to find it four times, but there are surely more out there."

"How long do you think it is going to take?" asked Don.

"We'll probably be able to have it done tonight," said Amita. "Tomorrow morning by the latest. There haven't been too many places where her computer was found, but there are some places where was logged on for over an hour."

"She was gaming," Liam threw in.

"Her life is in danger," said Don, "and your sister is playing games?"

Liam sighed and nodded, but there was a faint smile on his lips. "She says she finds it calming."

"Still," said Charlie, "even with the lack of locations, we're still getting a good pattern."

"That's good," said Don. "We certainly didn't have any luck with our suspect."

"What happened?" asked Charlie.

"The second he found out we had physical evidence that linked him to the crime, he asked for a lawyer and shut up."

Charlie nodded. "I can't understand why they even would have planted that bomb. What did it accomplish?"

"Confusion."

Don and Charlie both turned toward Liam. "What?" they said in unison.

Liam looked up from his computer and realized that everyone was staring at him. "Confusion. I've been thinking about it constantly. I've had a lot of time today, and there is only so much pacing I can do. They didn't know about Emily." Liam shrugged. "Maybe they still don't, but it was going to be a hell of a lot easier to get the code if everything was chaotic and everyone was split up. I don't think they counted on Franklin returning to the hotel early, which may be why none of my colleagues and I saw anything suspicious...other than the explosion."

Don thought about it and shook his head. "That would only have caused the NSA to crack down on the whole situation."

"Only if the NSA knew about it. The rest of the team was taken in the day after the bomb. Franklin was already dead by then."

Don's eyes went wide as realization dawned on him. "They're already planned on having the code by now."

"Which is exactly why we need to find Emily as soon as possible...before it's too late." Don could see in Liam's eyes just how scared the young man was, and Don couldn't blame him.

XVIIIIV

I hope you all enjoyed.


	3. Chapter III

Title: The Nautilus

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: Breaking Point

Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs.

Summary: Charlie knew things were going to get interesting the moment he saw a very nervous Liam Keller enter his office.

Note: I'm glad you are reading the third chapter, and I hope you all enjoy. Chapter 3/4.

**The Nautilus**

Chapter III

"_Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't." Erica Jong_

Emily was still scared to death and to make things worse, she was running out of ideas to keep herself safe. She tried to keep herself moving constantly, but it was getting harder considering she'd hardly slept or ate in two days. It was hard to focus on getting sleep or eating for that matter when there was a chance that someone was coming after you.

With a heavy sigh, Emily adjusted the strap of her backpack; with all of her stuff in it, the bag was beginning to dig into her shoulders, and since she was constantly running, having a bag dig into your shoulders was not good. Right now, Emily would do anything to be back in her tiny little dorm room in Chicago procrastinating homework while on Facebook. At this moment in time, Emily wasn't sure if she was ever going to be able to do that again.

XVIIIIV

Four sets of eyes were staring at the map of LA on the large screen while a fifth set stared at a laptop screen. All of them were hoping that in just a few seconds they would have an idea of where Emily Keller would be. The parameters had been set up by where Emily had been previously and by close bookstores.

With a few more clicks of the keyboard, Liam let out a long sigh and hit the enter key. There was a pause and then a few spots were marked on the map. Amita turned away from the large screen and started working on a laptop that was set up behind her. With just a couple seconds of typing, the three spots marked on the paper suddenly had addresses.

"It looks like there is a possibility that she is at a comic book store called Inked..." Larry gave the name of the shop a strange look. "An Internet cafe or a Barnes and Noble."

"How good of a possibility?" asked Don.

"Well..." started Charlie, "that's kind of complicated."

Larry decided to take over. "I believe what Charles is trying to say is that even though this model is good and we have a strong pattern, we're still trying to predict a single human being's behavior, and that is always subject to change."

Don looked back to his brother, who had decided it would be best to go over and look at Liam's computer.

"If I know Emily, she's somewhere surrounded by books," said Liam, looking up from the computer. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure how well I know my sister anymore." He looked back down at the computer; it was obvious that his mood was getting worse the longer Emily was missing. They caught him several times trying to call Emily's phone; she'd yet to answer.

"We just need to get to these places around noon; she seems to log on at places in the afternoon," said Charlie.

This was what Don had been dreading. He really didn't want to tell his brother that even though he was an FBI agent, there wasn't much he could do about Emily. Basically, what Don didn't want to tell his brother was that he was on his own.

Don set his hand on Charlie's shoulder. "Um...Charlie, can I talk to you outside for a moment?"

Charlie stared at his brother. "Um...sure."

The two brothers stepped out of the room and took a few steps down the hall. "Uh...Charlie...I'm not exactly sure how to tell you this, but the FBI can't go find Emily."

Charlie's brows creased in confusion. "What?"

Don shook his head and sighed. "Since the FBI was never officially looking for Emily, we can't send agents to those locations, especially if you don't want the NSA to take over before you even find Emily."

"So what are we going to do?"

"I can go, but I can't necessarily send anyone else."

Charlie shook his head obviously not happy with that option; unfortunately, he didn't have much of a choice. "Alright."

The two were about to join Larry, Amita, and Liam when David hurried up to Don. "Sherwood cracked. He's going to tell us all he knows about who hired him to make that bomb."

"Can't it wait?"

David shook his head. "Sherwood is willing to talk now or not at all."

Don sighed as he looked between Charlie and David. "Sorry, Buddy, but I've got to go take care of this. Look, make sure everything is ironed out, and after we talk with Sherwood, we'll go find Emily."

Charlie sighed; this was definitely not what he wanted to hear. "Okay."

"Alright. I'll be back soon."

Don walked off with David, and Charlie returned to the workroom. Larry, Amita, and Liam were all staring at him as he entered. Amita was the first to speak. "Well?"

Charlie really didn't want to the bearer of bad news, but at the moment, he had no choice. "Um...well...the FBI can't send agents to look for Emily."

Liam turned pale. "Why not?"

"Because they never officially took on her case. Don was going to go to the locations, but the guy who built the bomb at CalSci is finally talking."

"So...what's going to happen?" Liam looked incredibly nervous.

"We could wait till Don is finished-" replied Charlie.

"What if it's too late by then?" asked Amita.

"Or I could go," continued Charlie.

All three of them stared at Charlie, and for a moment the mathematician wondered if he had grown an extra head. Larry finally broke the silence.

"I'm sorry I can't find a better way to phrase this Charles, but you can't be serious?"

"I am."

Amita jumped in. "Charlie, it's dangerous."

"And if you go, I'm going with you!" added Liam; the danger aspect apparently hadn't occurred to him.

Charlie sighed; he'd been expecting this kind of reaction. "Liam, you can't go. The second you step out of the offices without an agent, the NSA are going to take you into custody."

Liam was not to be deterred. "But she is _my_ sister."

"I know, but you can't-" Before Charlie could finish his sentence, Amita had cut him off.

"I'll go!"

Liam, Larry, and Charlie turned toward Amita. "What?" they all said in unison.

"You're certainly not going on your own; it's dangerous, Charlie. Besides, you can't check all three places in time to find Emily."

"She's right," agreed Larry. He paused for a moment. "So I'll go too."

"You guys-"

"It's simple math, Charles. Three people to check three locations."

"I can't ask you guys to do this," said Charlie.

"You didn't ask," corrected Amita. "Now, if we don't leave soon, we're going to risk missing Emily."

"What am I supposed to do?" asked Liam.

All three looked toward the young man; they couldn't take Liam with them and risk the NSA taking the young man into custody.

"You're going to have to stay here," said Charlie.

"But-"

"I'm sorry. I really am, but if we find your sister, but the NSA has you, what's gonna happen?"

Liam looked down at him hands. "Okay."

Amita looked back at the map. "I'll take the comic book store. Larry, do you want to check out the Internet cafe?"

"I suppose."

"I guess that leaves me with the Barnes and Noble," said Charlie. He turned toward Liam. "We should be back in a couple of hours at the most. Promise me, you're not going to do something stupid, like try and leave."

Liam shook his head. "I'm not gonna leave."

"Good," said Charlie. He turned back to Larry and Amita. "Let's go find Emily." Something suddenly dawned on Charlie; the only person who had any idea what Emily looked like was the one person who had to stay behind. "Um...Liam?"

"Yeah?"

"What does Emily look like?"

Liam seemed kind of surprised by the question. "Um...well...she's kind of short...she has short hair. Wait! I have a picture of her." Liam turned back to his laptop and started typing away. Only a few seconds later, Liam apparently had found what he was looking for. "Here's a picture of her."

Amita, Larry, and Charlie stared at Liam's computer after he turned it around; he'd brought up his sister's Facebook page, and on the screen at the moment was a picture of four girls standing in front of the Bean in Chicago. "Emily is on the far right," added Liam.

Larry, Amita, and Charlie studied the young girl on the right side of the group. Her pale blonde hair cut into a bob, and a streak of green and pink framed her face. She was on the short side-five two, maybe five three-and she was a little chubby. Up until now, Charlie had no face to put with the girl he'd been looking for; all he had been focusing on was setting up the model. Everything seemed different now; Emily Keller had a face now.

XVIIIIV

Amita stood outside of Inked wondering whether or not to go in. If she waited outside, she had a chance to catch Emily before she entered the shop, but if Emily was already inside, she was going to have to wait till Emily came out to catch her. However, if she went in, she ran the risk of Emily changing her mind of coming to the shop.

Amita considered her options for a couple of moments, all the while watching the people who passed, entered, or exited the shop, and then she decided to enter the shop. Inked wasn't a particularly large shop which made looking for Emily pretty easy. She walked around for a few moments carefully studying the people in the shop. After a moment, it became obvious that Emily was not there. Before heading back outside, Amita decided it would be best to ask the person at the counter if they'd seen Emily.

She walked up to the counter and waited for the kid that was paying to finish.

"Can I help you?" asked the guy behind the counter after the kid was done.

"Um...yes. I was wondering if you had seen a particular person today?"

"We get quite a few people in here, so I can't say for sure," replied the guy.

Amita gave him an odd look and glanced around the shop; it wasn't exactly what most people would call "busy." Amita turned back to the guy. "It's very important."

The guy shrugged. "Sure. What did they look like?"

"Well, she's short...umm..." Amita tried to remember the photo. "Kind of chubby. Very short blond hair."

The guy shook his head. "I haven't seen anyone like that. Sorry."

Amita frowned. That wasn't what she wanted to hear. "That's okay. Thanks anyway." She knew she couldn't leave yet and risk missing Emily. "I think I'll just look around for a little bit." She turned away from the counter and started to "browse" the racks of comic books.

XVIIIIV

Larry had never quite understood the draw of Internet cafes. Whenever he felt the need to work on something, be it on the computer or not, he never felt like going to a crowded and public place where people were talking all around him. Maybe it was just him, but that did not seem like an ideal working environment.

Larry walked around the cafe once, trying his best not to look suspicious, but he didn't see Emily anywhere. No one in the cafe seemed to be paying attention to anyone else; even the cashier was hard at work on a computer. She only seemed to pay attention when someone came up to the counter. Larry doubted it would do him much good to ask the young girl at the counter if she'd seen Emily.

After a moment, Larry decided it would be best to try and wait for either Emily to show up or for Amita or Charlie to call him with good news of their own. He took a seat at a table facing the door and silently hoped the young woman would show.

XVIIIIV

Charlie couldn't actually remember the last time he'd been to a Barnes and Noble; even with his book release, he spent most his time in smaller book shops. Until he had entered, Charlie had forgotten how big these stores were; it was not going to be easy to find Emily.

As he walked through the store, Charlie spotted the information desk and thought it would be a good idea to ask one of the workers if they'd seen Emily. He waited in line for several minutes, all while studying the people who walked past him. When he finally got to the desk, Charlie was faced with a very exasperated Barnes and Noble employee.

"How can I help you?" asked the worker, giving Charlie a tired smile.

"Um...I am looking for a person," replied Charlie.

"Person?" said the worker, obviously confused.

"Yeah. A college-aged girl with short-"

"Sir," said the worker, cutting him off, "I help people find books, not other people."

"This is really important though."

The worker shrugged. "I'm sorry, but we're very busy. If you're not after a book, I can't really help you. Next please."

Charlie sighed in frustration; he was not going to get anywhere talking to the employee, so Charlie decided to start his own search for Emily. He tried his best to remember what kind of books Liam had told him Emily liked. After a moment or two of trying to remember, Charlie decided to start in the most obvious section: mathematics.

The single bookshelf that was crammed with books that varied from old mathematical theories to modern approaches was lacking a certain aspect: Emily. He wondered around the math and science area for a few moments before deciding that Emily was definitely not there. He racked his brain for another area to search. If he remembered correctly, Liam had said Emily liked to read comic books and similar things.

Charlie began wondering somewhat aimlessly around the bookstore looking for the comic books when someone in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Quickly turning his head, Charlie spotted a young woman with short blonde hair sitting in front of a bookshelf reading. Next to her was a bag and what appeared to a two wheeled skateboard. Charlie hurried toward her, not thinking that probably wasn't the best thing to do to a girl that was on the run.

When he reached the girl, she jumped and turned around to see who was behind; Charlie instantly recognized her as Emily, but it was obvious that the young girl did not recognize him. She quickly grabbed her bag and skateboard type thing and got up off the floor. Before Charlie realized it, Emily had taken off.

"Wait, Emily!" shouted Charlie, running after the girl. Emily, however, did not stop, and before Charlie could catch her, she'd ran out of the doors. _"Dammit!" _thought Charlie as he pushed through the store doors.

Emily was nowhere to be seen in the right direction, but Charlie spotted her riding the skateboard thing down the street the other way. However, before she could get to far, Emily lost her balance and went crashing to the ground. Charlie put on an extra burst of speed and caught up to the young girl lying on the ground. She panicked when she saw him and tried to get back to her feet, but she felt back with a hiss of pain. Charlie noticed that the palms of her hands were badly skinned.

"Are you alright?" asked Charlie, kneeling down on the ground. Emily didn't respond; all she did was stare warily at Charlie. "You're Emily Keller, right?"

"Maybe," she replied, swallowing convulsively.

"My name is Charlie Eppes. I'm here with the FBI; you're brother, Liam, asked me to help find you."

"Charlie Eppes?" said Emily, giving him a suspicious look. "As in Dr. Charles Eppes?"

"Yeah."

Emily seemed in intrigued if still a little suspicious. "Can I-can I see some proof?"

Charlie nodded and pulled his FBI ID from his pocket. He handed it to Emily, and after a moment of studying it, she handed the ID back to Charlie.

"You're really Dr. Eppes," said Emily. "I'm sorry, but what with everything that's happened...I'm sorry, Dr. Eppes."

"You can call me Charlie."

Emily smiled slightly "You said my brother asked you to help find me?"

"Yeah. He did."

"Is Liam okay?" Charlie nodded. "Good."

Noticing that a small group was beginning to form around them, Charlie decided it would be best to get moving. "I think we should get out of the middle of the sidewalk."

Emily nodded, and Charlie, remembering the condition of her hands, grabbed hold of her arm and helped her to her feet. Emily grabbed her bag, and Charlie picked up the skateboard thing.

"Um...do you mind if I ask what this is?" asked Charlie, holding up the object.

"It's a Ripstick," replied Emily. "As you can tell, I'm not very good at it. A lot of students at my school have them, and they're pretty good for getting around. I just got mine." Emily looked down at her feet, and Charlie could see her face turning red. "Sorry. This isn't exactly how I would have wanted to meet a famous mathematician...by running scared out of a bookstore and then crashing."

"What exactly happened that made you run?" asked Charlie.

"Liam didn't tell you?" Emily suddenly seemed very suspicious.

"He did. He said he called some plan, and that you took off. The guy who was supposed to go with you...was dead. I kind of meant back in the store?"

Emily nodded in understanding. "My nerves are a little high. I haven't slept much, and my diet has basically been liquid caffiene." She paused for a moment. "Are you sure Liam's okay? He seemed really upset when he called me the other night."

"That's because there had just been a bomb at CalSci."

Emily's jaw dropped. "What? He...is...is everyone okay?"

"No one was hurt badly." Charlie looked down the street where he had parked his car. "We really need to get back to the FBI offices. You're brother was freaking out that he wasn't allowed to go with us to find you."

"Why wasn't he?"

"He's kind of in FBI custody to keep from going with the NSA. If he left without an agent, the NSA would grab him."

"What did he do?"

Charlie looked down at his hands. "He may have punched an FBI agent."

"What?!" Emily was shocked.

"It's a long story. He can tell it to you once we get back." Realization dawned on Charlie. "I need to call Amita and Larry. They're the other two people looking for you."

As Charlie got out his phone to make the calls, Emily tilted her head to get a better look at something behind Charlie. He brought the phone to his ear, but Emily grabbed hold of his forearm tightly.

"Where is your car?"

Charlie stared at Emily. "It's down the road. I couldn't get a closer parking spot."

"We need to go."

"Why?"

Emily pointed behind Charlie, and he looked to see two very angry looking men walking towards them. Charlie turned back to Emily.

"Walk very quickly in the other direction and don't look back, okay?"

Emily nodded, and she and Charlie began walking in the opposite direction. About every ten seconds, Charlie looked over his shoulder at the two men. On the third look, Charlie noticed that the two men were now running.

"Run!" shouted Charlie, grabbing hold of Emily's arm. Even at the pace they were sprinting, Charlie swore he could hear the sound of the two men's footsteps gaining on them. It was then that Charlie made the fatal error; he turned the corner, thinking that it was a threw street. Instead, Charlie and Emily came face to face with a dead end. Before Charlie could get them turned around and out of the alley, the two men had caught up to them.

"Well...well...well...you are a hard person to find, Emily." The man who had spoken turned to Charlie. "Unfortunately, I have no idea who you are, which is not a good thing for you."

Emily was standing in a petrified silence, and Charlie stepped in front of her. "You're not taking her anywhere."

"My associate and I beg to differ." Both men took a step toward Charlie and Emily. Suddenly remembering the heavy Ripstick in his hand, Charlie waited until the men got a little closer and then swung the heavy contraption. His first swing struck the first man across the face knocking him to the ground. The second swing hit the other man in the shoulder, forcing him into the alley wall. While the man was leaning heavily against the wall, Charlie grabbed hold of Emily's arm, and they both ran out of the alley.

"Come on!" shouted Charlie, pulling the frightened Emily along toward the car.

XVIIIIV

"Drew," said Don, trying to sound calm and friendly, "are you sure there isn't anything else you can tell use about the guy who paid you to make that bomb?"

Sherwood shook his head. "The guy came into my garage and asked me if I needed any customers for my "alternative" business. I asked him a few questions to make sure he was a cop, and then I asked him what he needed. The guy told me he needed a bomb that would cause a lot of superficial damage but wouldn't actually kill or hurt anyone too badly."

"Then what happened?"

"I asked him what place he needed it for," replied Sherwood, like it was obvious.

"Why?"

"Different types of buildings require different types of explosives, especially if want a specific type of damage done. The guy told me it was for a ballroom type room at CalSci, and that he needed it done in a week."

"Then what did you do?"

Sherwood leaned forward and glared at Don. "I built it. A week after our first meeting, the guy came back. He picked up the bomb and paid me."

"What did the guy look like?"

Sherwood rolled his eyes. "He wore a hat and sunglasses at both meetings."

"Do you want the deal, Drew?" asked Don angrily.

"He was about six feet tall, and he had dark hair. Dark brown, maybe black. He was white, and he had plain accent."

"See, I knew you paid closer attention to your clients. What name did he give you?"

Sherwood leaned back and crossed his arm. "You don't want to know."

"I think I do," countered Don.

"Gregory House."

Don sighed. "And what did Dr. House pay you?"

"100,000 dollars," replied Sherwood.

"That's a lot of money."

"Which is one of the reasons I did it. With that kind of money, I wouldn't have to do much building for quite awhile."

"I've got one last question for you."

"What is it?"

"What kind of detonation did you make for that bomb?"

"The guy told me that someone was going to be in the room to do the detonation. They had to be within fifty feet of the bomb for the remote to work. Those are the cheaper bombs to make."

Don rolled his eyes. "Anything else you want to add?"

"No, Agent Eppes. I've got nothing else to add."

Don shook his head and stood up from the table. He left the interview room without saying another word to Sherwood and headed back down to the room where Charlie and the others had set up. He felt bad that the several interviews and bartering matches for a decent deal for Sherwood had taken so long, and he was hoping that the amount of time he'd taken to talk to Sherwood hadn't cost them their chance of finding Emily.

Don entered the room but was somewhat surprised when he saw that Charlie was missing from the group. "Hey." He looked around for a second. "Where's Charlie?"

XVIIIIV

Larry and Amita were back at the FBI waiting with Liam for Charlie to return with Emily. Amita had tried to reassure Liam that Charlie had said Emily was fine, but Liam was still anxious; he wanted to make sure his sister was okay.

"She's alright," Liam repeated over and over to himself. "She's alright."

"He said that she was in the..." Larry paused. "Manga section."

Liam nodded. "No surprise there. She has shelf at home completely full of of these Anime books. I don't know what she'll do when she finally moves out."

Just as Liam finished his sentence, the door the to the room opened. All three turned to face it, expecting see Charlie returning with Emily; they were surprised to see Don.

"Hey." He glanced around. "Where's Charlie?"

Liam, Amita, and Larry all looked at each other. In all their planning for going to search for Emily, they never once came up with a plan for what they would do if Don came back. Suddenly, that scenario was staring them right in the face.

"Well," said Amita, "he is..." She tried to come up with something reasonable; her mind failed her. "He's in the bathroom?"

Larry and Liam both stared at Amita. "Yeah," said Liam, nodding his head. "He said he would be right back though."

"Well, good. I know I took a bit longer with Sherwood than I expected, but hopefully we can still catch Emily." Amita involuntarily winced and looked away while Larry and Liam remained silent. "Um...is there something going on that I should know about?" No one replied. "Where's Charlie?"

"In all honesty, Charles is returning from the same place where Amita and I were not too long ago," explained Larry, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Um...Larry, no offense, but you're not making any sense."

Amita joined the conversation. "Charlie isn't in the bathroom."

"I gathered that," said Don. "Where is here?"

"Not here," Amita replied with a shrug. Don crossed his arms. "Charlie, Larry, and I went to look for Emily at the places our model gave us."

Don blinked several times as if not believing what Amita had just told him. "What?! You guys went?!" Larry and Amita both nodded. "Without agents?" Another nod. "Do you realize how dangerous that was?!"

Amita and Larry didn't respond, so Liam took over. "Charlie found her."

Don turned toward Liam. "What?"

"He found her. They're on their way here." Liam looked down at his hands. "He said-he said she's okay."

Don opened his mouth to continue speaking but stopped when he heard the door opening. All four people turned to face the door.

"I found her," said Charlie with a smile as he and Emily girl entered the room. His face fell when he saw a very angry Don staring at him. "Shit."

XVIIIIV

I hope you have all enjoyed the story so far, and I hope you all review. I am a review junkie.


	4. Chapter IV

Title: The Nautilus

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: Breaking Point

Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs.

Summary: Charlie knew things were going to get interesting the moment he saw a very nervous Liam Keller enter his office.

Note: I hope you all enjoyed my story; I know it was short, but I certainly enjoyed writing it. Please read and review.

**The Nautilus**

Chapter IV

"_When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." Charles Austin Beard_

"Emily!" shouted Liam, hurrying over to his sister and pulling her into a tight hug. "God! I've been so damn worried!"

"Careful!" shouted Emily when the hug became tighter and her skinned hands accidentally hit her older brother's back. Liam let go and took a step back to inspect his sister.

"Are you okay?" asked Liam, setting his hands on his sister's shoulders and looking her in the eyes.

"I'm fine," replied Emily. She held up her hands. "My hands are a little beat up; I fell off my Ripstick."

Liam shook his head and then began laughing; it was more of a laugh of relief than anything else. "I told you that stupid thing was bad news." He pulled his sister back into a hug. "I'm sorry, Emily. I am so sorry I got you involved in all this."

As the brother and sister's reunion continued, Don turned to his own brother. "You went to find her on your own?"

Charlie smiled sheepishly. "If we waited for you, we ran the risk of missing her."

"If you went on your own, you run the risk of something bad happening!" Don was fuming, but even in his anger, he didn't miss his brother's sudden interest in his shoes. With a sigh, Don grabbed hold of his brother's arm and pulled him out into the hall. "What happened?" demanded Don.

Charlie tried to avoid his brother's eyes. "We may have been found by the guys who were after the code...and it wasn't the NSA."

Don's stomach dropped. "Are you okay? Did anything happen?"

"We're fine; the skateboard thing that Emily uses is a little worse for the wear, but we're fine."

Don was still angry, but now he was a little intrigued. "What did you do?"

"I-I may have hit them with it."

"Did they have guns?!"

"If they did, they weren't out." Charlie looked down at his feet and then back up at his brother.

Don was at a loss for words. On one hand, his brother had not only created a model that predicted where Emily Keller would be accurately, he'd also found her and saved her life and his own. On the other hand, he'd done something completely dangerous and stupid. His loss for words continued, and finally, Don broke out into laughter. After a moment, Charlie joined in, and the two brothers stood in the hall laughing for several minutes. It finally died out, and Don was able to speak again.

"I am only going to say this about this incident once because I really don't want to encourage to do stupid and dangerous things like that ever again." Don took a deep breath. "I'm proud of you...really." Charlie gave his brother a smile. "Don't ever do it again." Don paused for a moment. "Ever."

Charlie laughed and shook his head. "Thanks, and I won't. I'll let you be the agent, and I'll stick with being the mathematician."

Don set his hand on Charlie's shoulder. "Let's get back in there."

When they returned to room, Liam's arm was around Emily's shoulder, and the young woman was doing her best to explain what had happened in the three days since the explosion. All the while, Larry was carefully looking at her hands.

"I just basically kept moving, and when I got tired, I would stop somewhere and use my computer. I was checking my mail...Facebook...trying to keep myself busy."

"Gaming," added Liam.

Emily turned red. "Gaming. Dr. Eppes scared the Hell out of me. I thought he was one of the guys after me, and then when those goons showed up-"

"What?!" shouted Liam and Amita in unison.

Charlie decided it would be best to try and change the subject. It would be easier to explain things to Amita when there wasn't the risk of an angry brother during the story; this time, it wouldn't be Don.

"Um...Emily, do you mind if I see this coded tattoo?" asked Charlie.

Emily shook her head. "No problem." She took off the jacket she was wearing and pulled over the strap of her tank top and bra to reveal the tattoo that two groups of people wanted to see so badly. Charlie, however, laughed when he saw it; there was no doubt that the people who designed this project were math people. The tattoo was of an intricate nautilus; one of the best examples of the golden ratio. He squinted his eyes at that complex patterns on the shell and noticed that when a person looked just right, they turned to numbers and symbols.

"That is pretty impressive," said Charlie. He turned to Liam. "How do you decipher it?"

Liam smiled and shrugged. "If I told you, the NSA would have to kill you." Charlie laughed at the joke. "It's overly complicated and takes a few hours."

"It's going to be so much fun for me," muttered Emily, pulling her jacket back on. "I love it when people just stare at me. When will this deciphering take place?"

"Very soon," said an authoritative voice from the doorway. Everyone turned toward the door and saw both Agent Bach and Agent Banks. "Agent Eppes, this game we played was very entertaining, but it is time we do _our _job." Agent Bach turned toward Amita and Larry. "I'm sorry, but the next part of this conversation doesn't concern you two. Please leave."

Don wanted to disagree with the smug agent; well, actually, Don wanted to punch the smug agent across the face. However, if anything was going to get sorted out, the FBI and the NSA needed to talk face to face; that wouldn't happen in front of Larry and Amita.

"I'm sorry guys," said Don, "but this is important." Larry and Amita both nodded and left the room without argument.

"This whole thing will go a Hell of a lot faster if the Kellers will just come with us." Agent Bach looked at the brother and sister. "Come on."

Emily and Liam didn't move. Instead, they both looked over to Don. Don moved in front of Liam and Emily just as Agent Banks took a step toward the duo.

"It's not quite that simple. Liam is still in FBI custody for assaulting an agent, and Emily came here of her own free will. Now, as far as I see, the FBI not only has the copy of the code you have been so desperately looking for, but someone who can read it. We seem to be one step ahead of you in your own case."

"This isn't wise, Agent Eppes." Agent Bach clenched his teeth.

"Liam, apparently, didn't think it would be wise to go to you with his missing sister, that you didn't even know about until my brother found her. Instead, he came to us; I believe that makes the FBI a major part of all this."

Agent Bach glared, and Agent Banks stepped back. "What do you want, Agent Eppes?"

"I don't know." He glanced over his shoulder. "Charlie...Liam...Emily, what do we want?"

It was not the question Charlie had expected. Liam and Emily were both silent, but Charlie knew something that would help both sides. "Join forces."

While Liam and Emily just looked confused, Don and Agent Bach glared at each other. It was obvious they both disliked Charlie's suggestion.

"I'm not sure that would work out," said Agent Bach as calmly as possible.

"Ironically, I agree with him," added Don.

Charlie shook his head. "Think about it. You guys-" He pointed at Agent Bach and Banks. "You guys need this code, and it is rightfully yours, but the bomb went off in FBI territory. If the FBI and the NSA work together, they both get what they want."

"And let me make the decision easier," added Liam, finally finding his voice. "I'm not going with you guys. I don't trust you guys, and I'm definitely not putting my sister in your hands."

Agent Bach shook his head at Liam, but Agent Banks apparently didn't take offense. Bach continued glaring at Don; Don was doing just the same. Several minutes passed before either agent spoke.

"I'm willing to give it a try," said Don.

Agent Bach looked over at Liam and Emily and then back to Don. "Fine. We'll work together; I'm not sure how well it will work, but let's give it a shot."

XVIIIIV

There were eight people gathered in the war room: two NSA agents, a brother and sister, a mathematician/consultant, and three FBI agents. The two NSA agents certainly didn't look happy, and the FBI agents were mirroring their expressions. It was obvious that the two groups were not keen on working together, but with the FBI having leverage, there did not seem to be a choice.

"We've talked to your associates," said Agent Bach; Agent Banks continued to remain silent. "They said you are supposed to deliver the code tomorrow."

"That's what Franklin told us," said Liam, "and Prof. Gordon told me the other day that as far as he knew, the meeting hadn't changed."

"Oh yes. Prof. Gordon. He was nearly as difficult to get a hold of as you and your sister." It was obvious that Agent Bach was not found of Liam's mentor. "We missed him at the hotel when we went to retrieve you and your colleagues, and we weren't able to pick him up until later that night."

Liam stared at Agent Bach. "That can't be right."

Agent Bach looked back at him, obviously confused. "What do you mean? Of course it's right."

"But I've been talking to Prof. Gordon since Emily ran. He said he was picked up with everyone else." Liam looked down at his hands. "Why would he lie?"

A thought suddenly struck Don. "Liam, you said Franklin kept Emily a secret?"

Liam nodded, glancing out of the corner of his eye to his sister; it was obvious he was still in big brother mode. "Franklin didn't want to risk anything slipping out about her; it was for both protection and secrecy. We weren't even allowed to talk about Emily when we were out in public, and Franklin was keeping a close eye on all our calls and emails."

"How would these guys have found out about her then?" asked Don.

"These men are professionals," said Agent Bach in a rather smug tone. "It's their job to know about these things."

"But they were specifically searching for Emily when I found her. Liam was never allowed to go and look for her, so they can't have followed him, and according to Liam, Emily's name wasn't used for the flight or hotel," said Charlie. "They followed Liam and I the day after the bombing, but Emily never saw anyone till two days after. You had everyone, but this Gordon."

The room was silent for just a moment, and then, Liam's face fell. "No. It can't be."

"That bastard," muttered Agent Bach angrily; Agent Banks had smacked the table.

Everyone in the room was thinking the exact same thing; in the few extra hours it had taken to find Prof. Gordon, the man would have had ample time to have been meeting with people, people who may have wanted Emily Keller very badly.

"I trusted him," said Liam, shaking his head several times. Emily went to set her hand on his shoulder, but the distraught young man quickly stood up from the chair, knocking both her hand and the chair back. "I trusted him! He told me that Emily would be safe, and he sold her out!"

Liam threaded his fingers into his hair, looking like he was desperately trying to retain control over himself. With one last frustrated groan, Liam threw his hands up in the air and stormed out of the room. Emily was out of her own seat before the door even shut, and she followed her brother out into the hall. Charlie started to get up from his own seat, but then changed his mind; it would probably be best if Emily dealt with her brother on her own.

"Despite the way he showed it, Mr. Keller is correct. Prof. Gordon has everyone fooled if he has been leaking information about this project out," said Agent Bach.

"What are we going to do?" asked Don.

"We're going to go ahead with the delivery of the code," said Bach. "We'll bring Liam and Emily back with us, so we can convince Prof. Gordon that everything is still okay. We'll set up a trap. We'll take Emily and Liam there tomorrow."

"Not without us," said Colby. "There is no way you guys are taking over the end of this case."

"Besides," said a voice from the doorway; everyone turned and saw Liam. "Emily's not going."

Bach's draw dropped. "We have to bring her."

"The guys won't know the difference," argued Liam. "They've never met or seen her."

"What about the tattoo?" demanded Bach; Don hated to admit, but the agent had a point.

"Draw on a fake one. I am not risking my sister's life again."

"He's right."

Everyone turned, trying to figure out who had spoken. Agent Banks was leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. "We really can't risk either of them, but Prof. Gordon will know that something is seriously wrong if we use a double for Mr. Keller. If Miss Keller gets hurt or worse, no one is going to want to translate that code; they won't trust us. We'll find a double for Miss Keller, and create an approximate copy of the tattoo. However, Gordon won't find out about this until we are on our way to the location. We'll all go to the sting tomorrow. Hopefully, Gordon won't have time to inform his associates about the switch, giving us the advantage." Agent Banks turned toward Don. "Do you have any agents who would fit Miss Keller's description?"

Don nodded. "I can find someone." He was still a bit bewildered by the fact that Agent Banks had spoken.

"Good." Banks turned toward Liam and Emily. Liam was staring open mouthed at him, and Emily was grasping his arm tightly. "I know you two don't particularly trust us, but this will bring this entire situation to an end. If you will return to the safe house with Agent Bach and I, we'll inform everyone and then you can get some rest."

Liam and Emily both nodded blankly, and Banks gave them both a warm smile. Don was actually surprised by Agent Banks' attitude and demeanor; apparently, he wasn't around for intimidation...well, _just_ intimidation.

"If we can get all the details organized," said Banks, apparently taking over for Bach, "the sooner everything can be set into motion. Agent Eppes, I'm sure you already knew this, but we'll be needing your best agents..."

XVIIIIV

Liam swallowed hard and prayed that Prof. Gordon wouldn't notice how nervous he was; sure, he had a right to be nervous, they were delivering a highly sensitive code, but he palms were literally dripping in sweat. That probably wasn't normal. Beside him walked a petite FBI agent dressed in clothes similar to what his sister would wear. She was supposed to say very little and avoid drawing much attention to herself.

Even knowing that there were FBI agents scattered throughout the building (which was supposedly an old safehouse) and one was standing beside him along with three NSA agents did nothing to calm Liam's racing heart. He was walking into the proverbial lion's den, and it was very likely that the people around him would only add to the lion's meal. God! He was beginning to sound like the computer games Emily played. His mind suddenly flew to his sister.

_"Will I ever see her again?"_

_ "Will she ever call me a nerd again or try and get me to play one of her games?"_

_ "Will I see Mom and Dad and Brian again?"_

_ "What are Mom and Dad going to say when they hear about this? ' Mr. and Mrs. Keller, your son was shot while delivering a code for the NSA?' Dad would insist they had the wrong Liam Keller, and Mom...Mom would probably faint. She nearly passed out when she heard Brian lost his passport in Egypt."_

Liam was suddenly snapped from his thoughts by someone elbowing him in the ribs; the Emily double was gesturing toward the people receiving the code. The agent made a very good impersonation of Emily; Liam was glad there was a thin bullet proof vest on under his sweatshirt.

"Excuse me?" said Liam, finally catching the agent's drift.

"Prof. Gordon said that you will be explaining the code?" said a man, standing only a few feet from him.

Liam straightened up in efforts to appear a little more intimidating. "That I am."

"Good. I heard about the way the information was supposed to be delivered, and I was impressed by the ingenuity." The man smiled at the agent playing his sister, and Liam felt a pang of protectiveness, despite the fact his sister wasn't there; she could have been...but she was safe. "And the dedication."

The man turned back toward Prof. Gordon. "May I see the tattoo?"

Liam looked confused. "Shouldn't you be asking Emily?" The Emily double elbowed him again.

Prof. Gordon seemed to ignore Liam. "I understand there is a bit of a hurry, but Emily probably doesn't want to just stand there while you stare at her shoulder." Gordon glanced at Liam and the agent, and Liam could tell that his former mentor was also incredibly nervous; although, that may have had something to do with the fact his plans had been ruined that morning with the announcement of the Emily double.

The man nodded as he reached into his pocket and turned. "I understand. There is an area where there is more room to work and a bit more privacy..."

Just as the man finished speaking and started pulling something out of his pocket, Liam saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. As he turned to see what it was, Liam felt as though he had been suckered punched in the stomach, and a second later someone shoved him to the floor from behind.

The air had rushed from his lungs, and Liam was trying desperately to coax it back in as someone shouted in his left ear, (Yes. Despite everything, he knew it was his left ear), to stay down. He could hear the distinct sound of gun fire going on around him as people shouted all around him. Liam could not tell for the life of him what they were saying. After an eternity, which Liam found out later was actually only a couple of minutes, someone was hauling him to his feet and asking him a question over and over.

"Liam?!" shouted the voice; Liam could see a figure in front of him, but his vision was a little blurry at the moment. "Liam?! Are you okay? Are you hit? Do you need a medic?"

It took several seconds for the questions to register in Liam's jumbled mind; his vision finally cleared, and Liam recognized Agent Eppes standing in front of him. "I'm good. I'm good." He tried to give Agent Eppes a smile or a thumbs up or anything to confirm that he was okay, but before he got the chance, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he passed clean out.

XVIIIIV

Emily paced the war room, silently counting how many steps different routes around the room took. The most recent route, which was by far the longest, took fifty four steps. She filed it away somewhere in the back of her mind where she kept mental solutions to computer game puzzles and what little Spanish she remembered from Freshman year of high school. Charlie was with her in the war room, trying to look busy on his laptop. Both of them were waiting for the agents to return, along with Liam.

Emily was just about to start another route around the war room when the door opened. Don walked into the room, but Emily's hopeful face fell when she did not see her brother behind him.

"We got 'em," said Don triumphantly, giving Charlie and Emily both a smile. "We have Prof. Gordon ready to give us a confession; he's too scared of what the men he was dealing with will say about him, so he wants to start the show."

"That's good," said Charlie, nodding. It was obvious he was relieved to see his brother back safe and sound.

Emily couldn't take it anymore. "Where's Liam?" All sorts of terrible scenarios were running through her head. "Is he okay?"

Don had been dreading this. "Yes."

Emily apparently didn't buy the short explanation. "Then where is he?"

Don closed his eyes and let out a sigh; he opened them and then responded. "He's being checked out at the hospital."

Emily's jaw dropped, and her face paled drastically; Don was worried the young woman was going to pass out like her brother. "You-You said he was okay?"

"He is," said Don, hoping to calm the young woman down quickly. Charlie had already gotten up from his own chair and was heading toward Emily to help diffuse the situation. "He passed out, and we were worried he may have been injured. Your brother seemed to be okay, but we had him checked out just to be sure."

Emily threaded her hands into her hair, and Don was beginning to see more and more similarities between the siblings. "I have to get to the hospital," said Emily flatly. "I have to get there now."

Don really didn't know what to say. In a moment, he was going to have to go get Prof. Gordon's confession, and with the bust they had just made, most the agents were busy. It would be just plain rude to stick the girl in a cab or on a bus, not to mention possibly dangerous if they hadn't gotten all of Prof. Gordon's associates.

"I'll take her," said Charlie, successfully ending Don's train of thoughts.

"What?"

"I'll take her," Charlie repeated. "Just tell me which hospital, and I'll drive her over."

Don nodded, told his brother the name of the hospital, and watched Charlie and Emily hurry from the war room. Well, actually, Emily was hurrying; Charlie was just trying to keep up.

Don sighed and also left the war room. He was headed to the interrogation room where they had left Prof. Gordon to sit and stew. Don was just hoping the he really was ready to talk.

XVIIIIV

Liam was staring at the television in the corner of his ER room. He wasn't paying attention to what was on the screen, but he was having an intense staring contest with it. The program wasn't interesting; he didn't even know what it was. Liam's mind was actually focused on what was probably going on in his sister's mind.

_"She's probably going crazy,"_ thought Liam; he furrowed his brows. _"Or she expected this...I could see that."_

Luckily, Liam didn't have to wait long to find out what his sister was thinking. The curtain that had been pulled around the bed he was laying in to block the view of him from the door was yanked back, and Emily was staring at him. Relief flooded across her pale face when she saw him, and she rushed over to the bed and hugged him tightly. Liam felt as though all the air had been squeezed out of him; while he hadn't been severely injured during the bust, a bullet had struck his vest. Emily just happened to be squeezing the bruise which was forming on his stomach.

"Don't ever do that again!" shouted Emily; he could hear a distinctive hitch in her voice.

"Emily?" wheezed Liam; she didn't hear him. "Emily?!"

She let go of him, and Liam slumped and started sucking in air. "Sorry," said Liam. "Couldn't breath."

"Are you okay?" she asked grabbing a chair and pulling it up to the side of the bed.

"Yeah," said Liam. "It's just a bruise."

Emily stared at him. "What bruise?"

"I got hit by a bullet in the vest I was wearing," replied Liam. "It's no big deal." _"I was shot; of course it is a big deal!"_

"You were shot?!" Emily nearly shouted.

"My brother left that part out."

Liam looked toward the door and saw Charlie standing there; he felt his face flush. Liam didn't really want to be in the same room with one of the greatest minds in the mathematical world while he was wearing a hospital gown and no pants.

"Hello, Charlie," muttered Liam, looking down at his hands.

"Are you alright?" asked Charlie. He didn't take up a chair in the room, but Liam could hear the sincerity in his voice. In all honestly, he was glad Charlie hadn't sat down. The situation was already awkward enough.

"I'm fine. The doctor told me not too long ago that I could be released. He went to get my papers, but with the way the ER was when I saw it, he might not be back for another day or two." Charlie laughed a little at his joke, but Emily remained quiet. He turned toward his sister and saw the serious look on her face.

"I'm alright, Emily," said Liam, patting her arm.

She nodded. "I know." She let out a long sigh. "Let's never be secret agents, okay?" Liam and Charlie both laughed. "I'm serious. You need to stick to your behavioral mapping, and I'll design computer games."

Liam smiled. "I'll do that on one condition."

"What?" asked Emily.

"Find my pants."

For a moment, Emily stared at him. Then she broke out laughing.

XVIIIIV

Don didn't like the man sitting across from him, and the fact of the matter was, he didn't have any reason to. Not only had the man nearly sold out the NSA and put possibly millions of lives in danger (Don still wasn't entirely sure what the code was for), but the man had sold out the younger sister of one of his own students. Don had merit not to like the man.

"Who were you put in contact with?" asked Don.

"I cannot be sure if he gave me his real name or not, but I was told his name was Robert McGuire."

"Where did you meet with him?"

"I was blind folded and driven there, but from what I saw of where I was, I was taken to a hotel."

Don's interview with the man went on for quite awhile, sometimes interrupted by a question from Agent Bach. He was supervising Don's interview (at least he said he was), and Don was ready to turn around and tell him off every time he interrupted him with his condescending sounding voice. He originally thought that he disliked Banks more than Bach, but he had been wrong. At the moment, Banks was in with David interviewing one of the men they had caught during the bust.

When it was obvious that the interview was over, and that not only was Prof. Gordon done answering questions, but Don and Bach were done asking them, the interview ended. Don shook his head as he and Bach headed toward the door. Another agent would come in after a few minutes and begin processing Prof. Gordon.

Don suddenly stopped and turned back toward the older man. "Can I ask you one more question?" He wasn't sure why he was being so polite to the man.

"You're going to anyway," replied Prof. Gordon.

"Why did you do all this? Why did you risk your associates' lives? Why did you risk the life of one of your students? Why did you sell out a twenty year old girl?"

"That's four questions." Don hated the man's cocky attitude, and he had a feeling Bach felt the same way. "They all have the same answer: five million dollars."

Don glared at the man and shook his head. As he exited the room, Don couldn't help but wonder how some people could put a price on their souls.

XVIIIIV

"Die! Die! Emily, why won't the damn thing die?!" Liam was hunched over his sister's laptop desperately trying to defeat a creature in one of her RPG games.

"You're fighting an ice creature with ice," responded Emily, with an exasperated sigh. "The best thing you can do is go back to the checkpoint and switch your powers to something with fire or lightening."

"What?" asked Liam. In the two seconds he'd turned away from the screen, his characters had died. "Dammit."

"You're doing better." Emily gave him a hopeful shrug.

Charlie was watching the two siblings with a smile on his face. In the two days since the bust, the NSA had made arrangements for all members of the groups, sans Franklin and Gordon, to return to Chicago. A few things had to be taken care of first. The tattoo on Emily's shoulder had been deciphered, which Charlie was still bummed about not being allowed to be present at, and then it had been filled in.

"For security purposes of course," Agent Banks had told them before they had silently backed out of the entire investigation. The nautilus was still present, but all the numbers and symbols had been shaded over in darker colors. Charlie wondered if the tattoo artist had been sworn to secrecy.

"I've heard of people becoming addicted to those games," said Don. He'd been watching the computer screen from the far end of the picnic table's bench. He looked up at Emily. "Is that true?"

"Only until the night before a project is due," she replied with a smile. She turned the computer away from her brother and exited the game. It wouldn't be long before the two would have to leave for the airport.

Liam stood up from the table, obviously grateful for the excuse to leave the game, and turned toward Charlie and Don. "I can't thank you both enough for what you did...for me and Emily."

Both Don and Charlie waved off his thanks; Don claiming it was his job, and Charlie saying it was a pleasure to work with the two other mathematicians.

"I'm sorry, again, for punching you, Agent Eppes."

Don shook his head. "Bruise is already staring to fade." A phantom pain from the solid punch from a few days before hit him, and he rubbed the fading bruise.

"Keep up your guys' work," said Charlie, giving them both a smile. "Whatever you go with."

Liam and Emily both nodded, and then Liam checked his watch. "Pack up your laptop, Emily. We've got to get to the airport."

Emily started putting away her computer as Charlie started speaking again. "If either of you ever get interested in CalSci, I'm sure I could talk to some people."

Liam and Emily both nodded given a jumble of thank yous. With a few good byes and hand shakes, Emily and Liam both walked away to a rental car parked a little ways away.

Don looked at his own watch. "Dammit. I gotta get back to the office."

"Are you still coming for dinner tonight?" asked Charlie.

"Is Dad cooking?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm coming to dinner."

Charlie shook his head and waved goodbye to his brother. He shoved his hands into his pockets and began his walk back to his own office. Amita met him along the way.

"You're a good guy," said Amita as Charlie put his arm around her shoulders.

"I am?"

"Yep." She gave him a sly smile.

"What?"

"You know what good guys do?"

"Help distraught brothers find their missing sisters?"

"That. And they take their girlfriends out to the dinner they promised before they helped the brother and sister. Oh, and since she helped, he buys her dessert."

Charlie sighed. "Where do you want to eat?"

"I was thinking Thai."

_**Finem**_

A/N: Liam and Emily are going to be making an appearance in another story (it's not a _Numb3rs _fic). I will give you a clue: dancing men. Take that as you will.


End file.
